Over the past few days, the Redwood City Pulse has received dozens of emails from frustrated readers who lost power following a severe windstorm on Tuesday. Due to the high volume of messages we received, below is a sampling of just some of them. They have been slightly edited for clarity and length. The last names have been omitted for privacy reasons.
*****
Subject: Still without power
Lost power at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Have no heat, all food ruined, disabled veteran and on very limited income without a single update from PG&E. I honestly didn't believe I'd make it through last night. I've seen much faster recoveries from much worse weather over the years, and I've yet to see a single PG&E vehicle anywhere in this neighborhood since this whole thing began. So here I am, sitting in the dark, without heat, without food, which I'll be unable to replenish until late next week and without any updates or information about when power will be restored. If it had not been for the good fortune of someone lending me a portable battery, I would have also been unable to compose this email as my phone battery had been dead since yesterday. I find it difficult to believe PG&E is without the resources and knowledge to have repaired this issue long ago. People are suffering and they don't seem to care about it at all.
-Richard
*****
Subject: Power Outage
My house is one that has been without power since Tuesday afternoon, and we have been so cold. My 4-year-old son gets up every morning and says, “Mama, I'm cold." Our power seems to go out more often than most and we just don't understand why and why it is taking so long to have our power restored. We just keep hoping today is the day they fix our power.
-Cris
*****
Subject: STILL NO POWER
Since noon on 2/21. With several promises of power on each day only to get updated it's not happening. Now dealing with rotten food, which we would have dealt with sooner had we known this was going to happen! Very frustrating....dark, cold home at night. But I am still grateful for a roof over my head even if I have to pile on the blankets. I know it could be worse, and is for those that are much older and the homeless out there, who deal with this every day. (I am 69 years old, but I think I am 29 in my mind).
- Sylvie
*****
Subject: No Power at Our House
I'm one of the many frustrated (and cold) residents in Redwood City. We've been without power for almost 48 hours. All my food in my fridge is spoiled by now, even with this cold weather. I've been told that I can file a claim and get reimbursed for some of the food. I need to look into that. We've been going to relatives' house to do some work (my daughter works from home) and showering. The situation is very frustrating. We're using many blankets at night to keep ourselves warm.
-Sibely
*****
Subject: power outage
Our power was out for 30 hours. My house was 52 degrees, and of course, I had no internet. Phone service was also out--all of my calls failed.
-Cathy
*****
Subject: Electricity outage
We were out of power from 13:03 Tuesday till 17:14 Wednesday. This is completely unacceptable for such a populous area in 2023.
-Richard
*****
Subject: Power
After three days, our power was restored at 9 a.m. this morning here, but I just received a PG&E message telling me that our power is still out.
Our neighborhood always seems to be the last area to be restored whenever there is an outage, which has been so frequent that we spent lots of money and installed a full house generator. Our freezer is full of our neighbors’ food. Thank heavens for that.
But now our furnace has stopped working. ARGHHHHH!!!!!
-Pam
*****
Subject: PGE
This has been a terrible experience in Redwood City. We have not had power since 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. We have been told that it would be restored at 10:00 p.m. Wednesday… now new update says 10 p.m. Thursday!? We are senior citizens freezing all night ,shuffling to the bathroom 6 times in the dark. We have 2 refrigerators where the food has spoiled, not to mention the freezers. This happened just last month! Also, many signals are out on Woodside Road, which is very dangerous. PG&E needs to step up and get the job done!
Tired and frustrated!
- Toni
*****
Subject: No power!
We are on day three of no power. This is totally unacceptable! Very cold, losing food from fridge, feeling unsafe when the whole neighborhood is dark. PG&E should do better!
-Sally
*****
Subject: No power
Originally it was promised at 11 p.m Wednesday night by text. This morning, Thursday morning, it is promised by 11 p.m Thursday night. The person who is sending the texts or a robot, or whoever it is, does not appear to be very intelligent, according to the grammar and spelling. Extremely bad PR for PG&E all the way around. In this day and age, they should be able to communicate quickly and intelligibly with their users. Not to mention the fact that they should be able to get power restored within a reasonable period of time. Looks very bad for the management of PG&E.
-Ann
